new details in the child sex abuse scandal the syracuse. bernie fine's third accuser taking him to court after the d.a. says no criminal charges will be filed. when all of his staff left and he was tanking out i predicted he would have another run. >> a guy that nose a things two about doing battle with newt gingrich tells us why he would never count him out. the dangerous road out of iraq. we are on the move with the 82nd airborne in steel fortresses designed to get them home live on this "american morning." and good morning to you. happy day before friday.

december 8. christina and ali have the morning off. here with alina cho. >> former syracuse basketball coach bernie fine about to be hit with a civil suit by a third accuser who claims fine molested him. lawyers for zach thomaselli will announce the lawsuit later this morning. federal authorities are still investigating his allegations to determine if they are credible. a state prosecutor says the two original accusers are credible. bernie fine won't be charged with sexually abusing bobby davis and mike lang because new york's statute of limitations expired. the d.a. says he was trying to broker a deal with fine when the audiotapes of fine's wife and an alleged victim emerged. >> before the feds got involved in this case, i met with bernie fine's lawyer and with bobby davis' permission i suggested the following scenario. i have proof bobby davis is

telling the truth. the lawyer didn't seem surprised by that. bernie fine -- acknowledged bobby is telling the truth. bernie fine can say all the lawyerly things lie like, going into counseling and save my marriage, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. that's irrelevant to me. had has to affirm those things. he has to resign from his position at syracuse university. with the knowledge we will come to investigate. and the lawyer and i, you know, went back and forth and we were fairly close to a resolution with those stipulations. >> fitzpatrick also talks about what the fine's nanny revealed about their marriage. more with gary tuchman's interview. jerry sandusky could be let out of jail again today. he was arrested yesterday on sexual assault charges involving two new accusers. one who says his cries for help

were ignored. jason carroll is live in pennsylvania for us this morning. good morning, jason. >> reporter: good morning to you. jerry sandusky denies the new allegations just as he's denied the previous ones. he now faces a total of 52 charges related to sexually abusing young boys. for the second time in two months, jerry sandusky, former assistant football coach at penn state, was hauled away in handcuffs facing charges of child sex abuse. a new grand jury finding two more alleged victims, identified as number nine and ten, claims sandusky abused them as children. both say they met sandusky through his second mile foundation. they claim he took an interest in them and inviting them to his home for meals and on outings and gradually engaged in sex acts with them. number nine was between 11 and

12 years old when he first met sandusky in 2004. he testified that over three years he often visited sandusky's home and slept over in a basement bedroom. there he says that sandusky forced him to perform oral sex. tried to rape him at least 16 times. at times succeeded. the victim testified on at least one occasion he screamed for help, knowing that sandusky's wife was upstairs. no one ever came to help him. alleged victim number ten, foster child, says sandusky had oral sex with him and fondled him in a pool on the penn state campus. is an does can i's attorn-- san denies the new allegations. >> he maintained his innocence. >> reporter: the new charges follow what prosecutors say was a similar pattern sandusky followed with the other eight victims identified in a previous grand jury report. grooming them with money, gifts,

and taking them to penn state games. the new accusers say that sandusky often told them he loved them and not to tell anyone. and this morning, sandusky remains in jail. bail is set at $250,000. if he's able to make bail, some of the conditions include that he will be subject to house arrest, he will to wear an electronic monitoring device and will not be able to have any contact with any victims or any witnesses. and no unsupervised visits with minors. his preliminary hearing is set for tuesday. >> jason carroll reporting live for us this morning. thank you. newt gingrich is the clear gop front-runner with less than an month to go before republicans start voting in iowa. the former houser is was all but forgotten a couple of weeks ago but now in iowa, take a look at this. a new cnn/time orc poll shows

gingrich up by 13 points. ron paul and mitt romney are in a tie for second place. yesterday i spoke with bill clinton, the comeback kid himself, about his one-time political rival, gingrich. curious to know what you think about newt gingrich being at the top of the polls. >> not surprised. one of the -- one of the journalists reminded me the other day when all of his staff left and he was -- you know, tanking out, i predicted that he would have another run. that he would come back. and i honestly had forgotten it. i have it on tape. he is first, resilient. secondly, he's always thinking. and he's -- got a million ideas. i mean -- and some of them are good and some are horrible. >> reporter: do you think he's the strong nest the field? >> i don't know.

i don't know. but -- in both our party and in theirs, very often the strongest person for nomination is not necessarily the strongest person in the general election. it is a mistake to underestimate romney. >> coming up next hour at 7:00 a.m. eastern time, we will have much more of my interview with former president clinton. find out what he thinks about mitt romney, jon huntsman and chelsea and hillary. newt gingrich spent time with our wolf blitzer yesterday. gingrich, who experienced both highs and lows during his political career, acknowledged he is a realist. there is still a chance something could derail his run. >> is it possible? i guess. oernld, i led a very long career and i have a very public record. and i think people are coming to decide that they like substance and like somebody who actually has balanced the budget, reformed welfare, cut taxes,

gotten it done for real. so i think that there's probably a little more resilience in my support than in some of the other folks who made a run at this. >> deputy political director paul steinhauser. he is live in washington for us. good morning. >> good morning. >> so, you know, this is -- a little bit of -- not quite an about-face but a little different stance than when he was newt and not newt. right? >> so much has changed in this race. we have seen so many candidates go up and down. now newt gingrich is soaring. you showed us the brand-new number in iowa. take a look at new hampshire. their primary and look at this. . this used to be mitt romney country. he had a huge lead in all the polls. down to 9 points now in our brand-new poll. gingrich really on the rise in new hampshire and look at ron paul, congressman from texas, nls a strong third place. let's move to south carolina. they vote next. first southern primary about 11

dies after new hampshire. look at that. newt gingrich, overwhelmingly lead over everybody else in new hampshire. fast forward on to florida. this is the fourth state to vote. they vote on the end of january, 31st. there is gingrich again with a very, very large lead among all the other fields. >> you know, given what you know about polling is this a wide enough lead that it will hold, do you think, paul? >> anything can happen. we saw rick perry go way up and come way down. same thing with herman cain. why is gingrich -- why is gingrich rising? that's the big question now. our poll kauts it is because of tea party support among people that say they are tea party supporters and likely to vote in the primaries and caucuses. they are going for newt gingrich in a big way. to your point, anything can happen. our poll also indicates in all these states we polled in, about half of the people say you know what, i'm still likely, possibly could change my mind. >> all right. paul steinhauser, thanks so

much. ten minutes past the hour. here's what's new this morning. attorney general eric holder can expect a grilling on capitol hill this morning. he will appear before a house committee investigating the botched operation fast and furious. it allowed weapons to go across the border to drug cartels. would guns were found at a murder scene of a border patrol agent. the program was fundamentally flawed. jon corzine expected to hit hard-hitting questions when he is called to testify this morning. lawyers are trying to get to the bottom of the firm's rapid collapse and what happened to the reported $1.2 billion in customer funds that appears to be missing. parts of the northeast getting an early -- late taste of winter, spring lately. reality hit an about-face. >> that's pictures are proof of it. just nasty conditions in north carolina with heavy snow and

then the wind really making things worse. you can see how it is just whipping the snow across the streets, make it difficult to keep it clean. things are definitely on the icy side for everybody heading out the door and heading to work this morning. now, the good news is that this is a really fast moving storm. take a look at the radar picture in the last three hours we had rain in providence. that's already gone. and so we are just looking at northern new england, still dealing with the rain and snow aspect of this storm. the wind is going to stick around across much of the northeast. at least throughout the early part of the day. we have two cold fronts that we are dealing with. the second one is going to bring in a reinforcing shot of cold air. winds have been amazing, causing damage, too. point juniper island, 79 miles per hour. that's greater than hurricane force. that will cause problems at the airports. new york, boston, philadelphia, major delays. under an hour for new chicago, detroit, and miami. that cold air with the wind combined making it feel colder than the temperature you are seeing the on the maps today.

>> i know. like a rude awakening. waking up this morning. thanks a lot. >> still to come, new clue this morning in the search for a possible serial killer. copping up, what police say they found while scouring a beach near new york city. road out of iraq still paved with danger. martin savidge hitch ad ride on a u.s. military convoy. occupy wall street versus chris christie? think the shouting chased the new jersey governor off stage? think again. this one is really good. we will show it to you. 13 minutes after the hour. progresso. it fits!

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[♪...] >> announcer: now get a $250 airfare credit, plus save up to 65%. call 1-800-sandals. certain restrictions apply. 16 minutes past the hour. welcome back. a significant development in the case of a missing sex worker in what could be a serial kill other the loose near new york city. >> police are searching on long island's south shore. they say they found items belonging to the missing womans who disappearance prompted a certain much that turned up those ten bodies. chris mills was on long island and joins us with the latest. what's going on here?

>> good morning. incredible case. even getting more interesting right now. police say over the last would days they found a purse, clothes, cell phone, all belonging to shannon gilbert. gilbert, who is from new jersey, went missing in may of 2010 after she advertised sex services on craigslist. seven months later while searching for gilbert police discovered the remains of ten other people. all with ties to the sex trade. police believe all ten are the victims of one serial killer who has been operating on long island for the last 15 years. police were able to more effectively search the area on long island's south shore because they found draining equipment helping expose all those newly discovered items. gilbert was last known to be in that area after she made an early morning 911 call saying someone was trying to hurt her. she also knocked on a door and screaming "help me, help me" and indicated that someone was chasing her but then ran off. police believe they will find

her remains there as well and plan to search again today. starting at 8:00. >> she came so close. it is a mystery as to why she ran off after -- asking for help. frightening. do police believe her killer is the serial killer? >> no. their story is -- no. it is interesting. last few weeks police told us they believe gilbert is not connected to those others and here's how the local police commissioner explains all of that. >> this may abyoung lady that ran into the brush in a hysterical state and fell down and expired for some reason. >> so now police will dry out that pocket book and see what clues they may be able to get. >> what? >> from the cell phone. >> she calls 911, she goes and knocks on someone's door and believes she tripped and died accidentally? >> it truly sounds unbelievable.

but police say they believe this and this is what they are putting out there publicly. remember, at first, they found a man and a toddler along with the victims and thought there was more than one killer but the man was wearing women's clothes eventually tying him to the sex business as well. one of the women is related to the toddler that was found, possibly his mother. these theories can change. >> what i want to know, though, is if this -- if this latest case is not linked to the others, what does link all of the others together? >> it is strange because they know the man that called miss gilbert, girl they were originally looking for out there. but police tell us they cleared him. >> interesting. >> all right. chris mills, thank you very much. the morning after pill will not be made available over the counter to young teens. it will stay prescription only for girls under 17. the secretary of health and human services overruled an fda recommendation saying more research and data needs to be

done on plan b, the emergency con that excepttive. the fda found the pill to be safe. three years ago the u.s. attorney said the charge was make lincoln roll over in his grave. rod blagojevich was finally sentenced to 14 years for trying to sell president obama's old in the seat. blagojevich said he was sorry in court yesterday but the judge said that apology sounded more like a politician or a lawyer, one they would give. >> hard to believe that saga is over but maybe it is not. we will have to wait and see. on "american morning," don't mess with a guy from new jersey. governor chris christie heckles the hecklers in the crowd in eye way. watch. >> we are used to dealing with jokers like this in new jersey all the time. >> sound like a presidential candidate? he's said no, he's not running. but will he?

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welcome back. minding your business this morning. can the dow extend its three-day winning streak? u.s. stock futures are trading lower this morning. at the moment investors are not feeling so optimistic that europe can solve its debt problems. in brussels leaders of france and germany are expected to urge all of eu members to adopt a new plan designed to prevent a repeat of europe's debt crisis. even so that debt crisis is far from resolved. ratings agency standard & poor's placed 17 members of the euro currency zone on review for a possible downgrade. germany and france are on the list. in about two hours from now

we will get a fresh read on the employment situation. the initial jobless claims report is expected to show 402,000 unemployment claims were filed for the first time last week. that's up slightly from last week. any time that number is above 400,000, not a good sign for the labor market. warren buffett is making a big bet on the battered solar industry. the billionaire investor's energy company just agreed to buy $2 billion solar farm in california. one of the biggest solar projects in the world. mark's solar industry has been struggling because of the lack of demand and massive oversupply. drug maker astrazeneca is cutting a quarter of its work force, more than 1,100 jobs. layoffs are part of an objective to cut costs. yahoo has been awarded $610 million in damages from fly jeer yam scammers. they sent more than 11.6 million

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they were given a particularit home but there are no guarantees they will get there. dangerous road out of iraq. the 82nd airborne. on this "american morning."

welcome back to "american morning." thursday, 30 minutes past the hour. time for this morning's top stories. the allegations are credible but too old to prosecute. that from a new york district attorney who says ex-syracuse basketball coach bernie fine won't be charged criminally with sexually abusing two former ball boys because the statute of limitation has expired. lawyers for a third accuser plan to file a civil suit today against fine. eric hold other the hot seat. the attorney general testifies this morning before the house judiciary committee at a hearing on the fast and furious gun operation that put weapons in the hands of mexican drug gangs. a growing number of lawmakers want holder to resign because of that botched atf program that may have caused the death of a border patrol agent. jon corzine trourns washington. only this time to testify. lawmakers are expected to grill the former head of mf global

about why the firm filed for bankruptcy. and also why an estimated $1.2 billion in client money appears to be missing. the nearly nine-year war in iraq now in its final weeks, all but a handful of troops leaving the country, by the end of the month. the last remaining american soldiers the way out of iraq is a long and potentially dangerous road trip. cnn's martin savidge went along for a ride. good morning, martin. what kind of precautions do they need to take? >> reporter: they take plenty of them. good morning to you, carol. they are watching these convoys not just from within but also from above. you have everything from spy satellites to drones and jet fighters and the helicopters that act as overwatch as they call it. if you want to get on one of these convoys, you don't get up early in the morning. you get up in the middle of the night. take a look. 2:30 a.m. it comes to life in the dark

bitter cold. despite the time and temperature, these soldiers of the 82nd airborne are in a good mood. >> over here. >> reporter: the trip has taken six weeks to prepare. mainly because of security. convoys are tempting targets especially for ieds. the u.s. milita-- weighing seve tons. >> let's go. get in the truck! >> reporter: looking reich snowplo snowplows, truck with massive rovers designed to detonate mines lead the way. >> going into various section. 170 trucks, ten hours, all of it heading south. >> reporter: once on the iraqi highway the soldiers are now the

most vulnerable they have been during their entire deployment. >> how are you feeling? >> pretty excited to get home but careful to get too excited because anything can happen. >> reporter: helicopters providing cover from the air check in. if there is going to be trouble convoy leaders believe it will be in and around baghdad but instead the only convoy beats is the rising sun. the drive drags on and on. it is so packed with bodies and gear, it is hard to find a spot to rest your feet. the air conditioning is kept near freezing so the soldiers remain alert. then -- >> company just called up. they may have received small arms fire in the vicinity of the rest stop. >> reporter: some lead vehicles have come under fire at place where the convoy planned to take a break. the rest bypass the problem. opting instead to stop later at

a side of the road. >> making is your no one has a chance to trade out their drivers, trade out their gunners. and basically make sure people have a chance to stretch out their legs. >> reporter: eventually we make it to camp. it has been april grinding ten hours and average speed of 13 kilometers or 20 miles an hour. here the convoy will spend the night. what's that mean for you? >> that means once that -- one step closer to home hopefully everything goes to plan. >> reporter: tomorrow they will be on the road again for the final six hours to kuwait. nice group shot of the whole team. we should point out that u.s. officials say there have been ied attacks on some of the convoys and most of them have failed to even damage the vehicles. however, there is a very small concern that these attacks could increase as the days draw down and the number of u.s. forces in iraq draw down as well. there are some groups that would

like to give the impression americans are leaving being chased out under fire. >> we hope they all make it out safely. get home in time for christmas. mark savidge, many thanks. reporting live from baghdad this morning. new jersey governor chris christie got -- he got occupied during an appearance on behalf of mitt romney in iowa. take a look. >> about our situation in america. there is one thing that's extraordinarily uplifting. >> chris christie and mitt romney! >> oh, yeah. >> all right. you know what's coming next, right? christie is not known for biting his tongue and gave it right back to them. basically scolded the protesters like kids for supporting president obama. >> their anger is rooted, not at me or mitt romney. their anger is rooted in the fact that they believed in this

hope and change garbage they were sold by this president. they believed in the fact that this president was going to be a post partisan leader. they believed that this president when he said he was going to be a transformational figure in our country. so now they are angry but they are not mature enough to know they should be angry with themselves. >> governor christie endorsed mitt romney after he flirted with his own presidential run. he was there as a surrogate for the candidate. ce o'of one of the largest tech firms, sick of getting so many e-mail, so he is banning company e-mail altogether. i think that's a smart move but is it? or is he overreacting? we are going to talk to him after a break. ttd# 1-800-345-2550

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just imagine a workday without any e-mails. can you imagine it? one of the largest information technology companies in the world wants a zero e-mail policy

to be in place by 2013. this's just too many e-mail population. he's the former french finance minister and joins from us paris. good morning to you from the city of light. e-mail population, you are one of the biggest tech companies in the world. kind of ironic that you decided to get rid of e-mail. what exactly are you doing? and why did you do it? >> good morning, yes. we decided to ban, over the next three years, internal e-mail. not external. we will con to use external e-mail. communication between organizations. but internally. our people, our employees, we are spending so much time on

internet e-mail. we made our own studies. we were spending between 15 to 20 hours a week to do internal e-mails. >> so -- >> we asked how many of these e-mails are use useful for you for your work and they said 15% only. we decided it was time to walk slowly with the new tools that technology is waiting. >> that's interesting. find that interesting. in of your younger employees were saying that they felt e-mail was passe. how do you want your employees to communicate then? >> you know, it is a young company. average age of our employees is 35 years old. we hire 10,000 new employees.

most of them are leaving from college. guess what. they don't use e-mail anymore. they are using instant messaging, social networks. they discovered we give them a tool they don't use anymore. we asked them with the social network caldwell being at work made of a lot of new upgrades, when will be your dream. it is may duty to do it slowly but to do it. i decided during the next three years, we will -- eradicate e-mail and buy these tools. >> what's the reaction been and have you -- have you been able to pull it -- have you been able to pull it off? has it been effective so far? >> so today we are investigating all the tools.

there's a lot of tools, by the way, available. our own tools. now we are finalizing the selection of what would be the new tools that will allow progressively within the next two years in our can he. we are financing this selection. we have some pilots. guess what. the pilot that we are with 600 of these. this is what they say to us, you know -- they were sitting before more than 100 internet e-mails add aa day. it is my duty to combine them in this journey. >> it is an interesting idea. it caught our eye because you mentioned in "the wall street journal" recently you hadn't sent a work e-mail in three years. let's see if the idea catches on for your 74,000 employees and

beyond that. thanks so much. >> that's fascinating. they are going to create a social network within the company but -- i just wonder that cause the same problem. >> that could be another issue. at first i thought are they actually going to call on people to talk face to face? call each other? how about that? how archaic. he is going the other way. we will have to see if it works. it is an interesting idea. we will see if it catches on. >> it is 45 minutes past the hour. talk about road rage. cnn's poppy harlow took the ride of a lifetime inside of a british army tank where you can crush anything in your path. first, live look at new york city. >> wow. >> wasn't connecting the two, mind you. beautiful, though, outside. but cold. 45 minutes after the hour

>> i'm annie duke. he didn't raise raise. >> three months a year in las vegas. off and on. number one is never, ever check a bag. i really bring the minimum. i make sure that everything is mix and match. jeans are really good because, look, let's be honest, you can wear a pair of jeans more than once. you should commit to a pair of shoes that can look dressed up or dressed down. this is the toothpaste i like. i have in my pantry at home 20 of these. like 90% vegan. i don't any meat at all. i actually have a trail mix company called my mixed nuts i travel with mixed nuts packages because quick energy when you literally cannot find anything to eat. are you still in? >> knocked out. >> oh.

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it is 48 minutes past the hour. here is what you need to know to start your day. saved by the statute of limitations. former syracuse basketball coach and alleged pedophile, bernie

fine, won't face sex abuse charges brought by two former ball boys because the charges are too old to prosecute. attorney general eric holder expected to face tough questioning at a hearing before the house judiciary committee. panel is investigating the botched gun walking operation fast and furious. new records reveal the air force dumped the remains of at least 274 american troops in a virginia landfill. that's far more than the military previously reported. a federal investigation revealed gross mismanagement at the dover mortuary that handles the bodies of u.s. war dead. in washington, the former head of mf global, jon corzine, will go before lawmakers who want to question the former new jersey governor about the collapse of his brokerage firm. corzine is expected to be grilled about the estimated $1.2 billion in customer money that remains missing. alec baldwin apologizes, kind of, sort of. in a letter the actor said he's sorry to passengers on a flight

delayed after he refused to stop playing words with friends and was booted tv plane. baldwin then went on to rabbit rant about the airline industry saying they make flying a greyhound bus experience. greyhound fired back and said they don't even know if he has ever been on one of his busses and don't know why he mentioned them. that's the news you need to start your day. "american morning" back after a break.

welcome back. it is one of a kind of extreme adventure. only place in the country where you can drive an army tank, crush a car, and fire off some military grade weapons to boot. >> i love this story.

i'm so jealous. >> sounds like a job for poppy harlow. >> just another day at the office. it was fun experience. i'm just going let you watch this story. you can see exactly what went down. take a look. meet larry. a 120,000-pound battle tank. that's destroyed. here you can drive it and crush almost anything you want. i found larry about an hour south of may hometown. >> we are in the drive a tank world headquarters in kasota, minnesota. >> reporter: don't you know. marie and her son tony own seven tanks. for 500 buck as pop people get the ride of their life. >> we imported them in pairs. we have two and then got two

more and two more. >> we had an very many banker from saudi arabia stop by. i had a group of engineers come, all around the world. one from india, china. >> reporter: these puppies are all bricks. 60 to 80 grand a pop. turns out you can't buy american tanks. >> you have to be a thinker to have these. it is not like just anybody can go out and buy them and make them run and keep them running. >> reporter: you have to take a safety class before getting behind the wheel. >> you are here to drive tanks. and shoot some guns. do we have any questions so far? >> reporter: this is where we are going to drive them. take a look. we are in the middle of the woods. >> drive a tank. we can get it together. >> reporter: meet rick. driving instructor. of sorts. boo-yah. >> sounds like a real life sized g.i. joe. >> reporter: don't even think of trying to shoot it.

these guns won't fire. >> disneyland for an army retiree. >> reporter: now my turn. down in hatch. watch your feet. how do you brake? here we go! >> slow down a little bit. pull right. pull right. pull right. good job. perfect. okay. >> reporter: i only hit one tree. >> well -- >> go down there. you nicked a couple. got one pretty good. >> reporter: turns out half the folks that drive them are women. >> women love to be in charge, have power. a tank is about as cool as it gets. >> we had one gal that came in a skirt and flip-flops. >> reporter: at the end of the day you get to do this. first time for everything.

>> so awesome. >> i was terrified. yeah. i was terrified driving the tank. it is so claustrophobic when you get in there. it is tiny. it is not that hard to drive once you get used to it. you pull right on this lever to go right. pull left. actually, the scariest part was at the end shooting a machine gun. i have never touched a gun. >> you can shoot the gun? >> you can shoot the guns. that's the end of the experience, shoot world war ii guns. it is unbelievable. really interesting -- >> did you hit anything? >> the target. >> you did? >> on i, oh. >> good. >> trying to get on target. what was interesting they tried to start the company in their hometown and they told me their neighbors just freaked out. and there was a battle inside of the town about it -- tony who runs this even told me some of the neighbors told him they thought terrorists would come and try to train driving the tanks. long story short, they moved to another town. apparently this town is welcoming. >> i love that so many women want this experience. >> i know. >> we were joking i would be the

woman in the camel skirt and flip-flops. >> and stilettos. >> carol would be first in line meanwhile. >> it was surprising women are doing it. i get it now. it is this really empowering experience. and at first when i got behind the wheel i thought i cannot do this. there is no a. looking around. is anyone's foot near here? i don't want to run over anything. once you do it, you okay, i can do that, too. >> i love that story. i'm going to minnesota, baby. >> don't you know. >> we will be right back. gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health.

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when all of his staff left and he was tanking out, ig predicted he would have another run. he would come back. >> the comeback kid. former president bill clinton, a guy that knows a thing or two about doing battle with newt gingrich, tells me why he never counted him out. new details of the child sex abuse scandal at syracuse. bernie fine's third accuser taking him to court after the d.a. says no criminal charges will be filed.

this is no movie. this isn't xbox. this is real war. on the frontlines. taking fire in afghanistan. it is the birth control pill dangerous? taking a look at potentially harmful side effects of the drug on this "american morning." good morning, everybody. it is thursday, december 8. ali and chris tyne are off. i'm alina cho along with carol costello on this "american morning." >> up first this morning, dramatic gains this morning by a candidate all but forgotten until just a few weeks ago. we are talking, of course about former house speaker newt gingrich. according to new cnn "time" polls gingrich leads in three of the first four nominating states and he's closing the gap in mitt romney's backyard. in south carolina, among likely gop primary voters, gingrich

leads romney by 23 points and in florida, gingrich has 48% of the vote compared to romney's 25%. and in new hampshire where the former massachusetts governor has a vacation home, romney leads gingrich by just nine points. >> i had a chance to speak to newt gingrich's one-time political rival, former president clinton. i asked the former president for his take on gingrich's surge in the polls as well as what he thinks of the former front-runner, mitt romney, and jon huntsman. watch. >> not surprised. somebody -- one of the -- one of the journalists reminded me the other day that when all of his staff left and he -- you know, tanking out, i predicted that he would have another run. that he would come back. and i -- i honestly had forgotten it. i got it on tape. i remember when you did it. he is -- first, resilient. secondly, always thinking.

and he's -- got a million ideas. mine. some of them are good and some of them, i think are horrible. i thought in that last debate, he had the most responsible position on immigration. the only guy that didn't just totally judgment in the tank with the tea party, sent them home yesterday. never mind what they had done and how many taxes they paid. never mind if the kids are in our schools. and then the next day he says by the way, we ought to mimic the constitution so i can abolish the ninth circuit. it is too liberal, get rid of it. there is a federal judge in another state you want to fire because he made a decision. so, you know, he has -- good days and bad days. and we will have to see what happens. he will make it entertaining. >> reporter: do you think he is the strongest in the field? >> i don't know. i don't know. but -- in both our party and in theirs, very often the strong st

person for the nomination is not necessarily the strongest person in the general election. and it is a mistake to underestimate governor romney because of, you know, he performed well in all these debates. and he did a lot of -- impressive things. governor of massachusetts. i don't think he ought to apologize for that health care program. it is working there. inflation rate and health costs is less the rest of the done trip since they adopted that. health outcomes are higher. highest percentage of insured people in the country. i wouldn't be apologizing for that if i were in his position. i think that it is -- just hard to say who will win. the only one that hasn't had a run yet is huntsman. i think a lot of him. he's actually qualified to be president. it is going to be interesting to see whether he gets his run. >> speaking of jon huntsman, he is hoping a good showing in new hampshire will help catapult him to the front of the gop

presidential pack. huntsman will be a guest on "john king, "usa today"" tonight. >> no criminal charges will be filed against fine. that's because new york's statute of limitations expired. in an exclusive interview with cnn's gary tuchman, the county d.a. says a nanny who worked for the fines has more damning evidence. >> your impression the au pair is convinced bernie fine had a sexual relationship of davis while at the house no question about it. automatic kinds of things that -- she didn't physically witness any molestation but clearly body language, affect, the way they talk to each other and the way they acted around each other and conversations she had with lori fine, no question. >> for example, when it came to bernie, what did she say about the way bernie fine acted that

made her know they were having -- >> the way they would do things, the way they would watch tv, the way they would eat food together, suddenly disappear together. >> what did lore grin say to her? >> lori fine had numerous conversations with her. and the gist of the -- gist of the correctional

facility just to make sure that jerry sausky was, in fact, still in jail. had is. and he continues to deny these new allegations as he has denied the previous ones. for the second time in two months, jerry sandusky, former assistant football coach at penn state, was hauled away in handcuffs facing charges of child sex abuse. and in a new grand jury finding two more alleged victims identified as number nine and ten claim sandusky abused them as children. both accusers say that they met sandusky through his second mile

foundation. they claim that he took an interest in them. and inviting them to his home for meals and on outings. and gradually engaged in sex acts with them. alleged victim number nine, between 11 and 12 years old, when he first met sandusky in 2004. heselfed that over three years, he often visited sandusky's home and slept over in a basement bedroom. there, he says, sandusky forced him to perform oral sex and tried to rape him at least 16 times. at times succeeded. the victim testified on at least one occasion he screamed for help knowing that sandusky's wife was upstairs but no one ever came to help him. alleged victim number ten, foster child, says that sandusky had oral sex with him and fondled him in a pool on the penn state campus. sandus sandusky's attorney denies the new allegations. >> i have no reason to doubt what he maintained are the outset of the first allegation involving accuser number one, maintained his innocence and maintained his innocence all the

way through. >> reporter: new charges follow what prosecutors say was a similar pattern, sandusky followed with the other eight victims identified in a previous grand jury report. grooming them with money, gifts, and taking them to penn state games. the new accusers say sandusky often told them he loved them and not to tell anyone. bail is set at $250,000. sandusky's attorney says he's expected to post bail later today. if he is able to do that, some of the conditions include that he will be under house arrest and will have to wear some sort of an electronic monitoring device. and in addition to that he will not be able to have any contact week victims or witnesses and no unsupervised visits with minors. >> jason carroll, thank you very much. paul, welcome. we have these two new victims

who have come forward. and first of all, let's start with the conditions. if jerry sandusky is able to make bail, will have to wear a monitoring device on his ankle. will that satisfy most people, do you think? a lot of people say he should be in jail, period. >> i think most people are going to be very, very upset about this. i mean, a lot of people thought with two new victims coming forward, they are going to throw him in jail or set bail so high that he will remain in jail. because he's a threat to children and a threat to the public. lawyers who know a lot about bail and have argued serious cases would tell you that the purpose of bail is the ensure that somebody shows up for trial. and with respect to sandusky, there's no indication that he's a flight risk. at least in the judge's mind. he's obeyed every court order that's been issued with respect to his cases. and so these conditions were set down, 250,000 cash bail. he's being monitored and has to

remain at home. nonetheless, i would have expected a million dollars or something that was pretty much -- >> a wealthy guy. >> unmakeable bail. he would have been thrown into prison. but the judge is applying the law as it exists. >> in the latest court documents, these two new victims describe being taken to jerry sandusky's basement. one of the young men who was about 10 years old at the time, said he would cry for help from the basement expecting mrs. sandusky to come help him and she never did. in light of this, do you think that mrs. sandusky might eventually be accused of something? >> you know, carol, i read the details of these charges in what we call the grand jury presentment. i'm telling you, it is just -- hard reading. the claims of this child, he was screaming in the basement at times and we are talking about -- really talking about sodomy and rape going on in the basement while -- you know, the wife is upstairs.

can she be charged? it will be very, very hard to charge her because you would have to establish that she actually heard the screams, that she had some sort of supervisory or guardianship responsibility to make a report. all of these things are very, very difficult to establish as a matter of criminal zblau but in most of the cases, paul, these boys were taken to the base many. they slept in this base many bedroom that sandusky had in his home often. so wouldn't the wife notice a pattern of behavior here? >> well, you certainly would think so. this is what in child abuse circles people describe as grooming. you know, the pedophile picks his victim, a child. then grooms him by giving him candy, by giving him opportunities to watch tv shows that he can't normally, becoming his friend. obviously the wife would be aware that this odd situation is going on in the basement. so i -- you know, i don't think that we can rule out criminal investigators looking at her in

the future and possibly saying that this is aiding and abetting and part of a criminal conspiracy. i will say that as of now i haven't seen enough evidence, firm evidence, to link her or indict her on some kind of criminal charge. >> i would think it is odd that -- it is always little boys coming over. never little girls. >> you have to look at the way he set up his life. he's involved with this second mail charity. his whole purpose in life is supposedly helping young children. so bringing them home she would say, well, it was just part of the charity. he's a sports coach. that's how she's going to try to explain it. >> let's talk about -- we were having this discussion in the newsroom yesterday about whether there would actually be a trial. or if some sort of plea deal would be worked out. like -- there was -- one line of thought, you know, his lawyer, so strange, allows jerry sandusky to give interviews to

"the new york times" and bob costas and that's strange from the get-go. we thought that maybe because of that, there would be a trial. what do you think? >> i would be very, very surprised if the case ever gets tried. we are now up to ten alleged victims. weigh don't know the strength of case. he is presumed innocent until the evidence is brought forward. but nonetheless, this is an avalanche of claims against him. and bear in mind these are very, very serious charges. some of these charges he is facing 20 years in prison opinion and -- consecutive 20 year in prison charges. if prosecutors at some point approach him and say we are going to make you an offer that will prevent you from serving life in prison -- >> clearly he doesn't believe he is guilty. could you say maybe he's delusional and his lawyer keeps allowing him to do these things that many lawyers would not allow their clients to do, so you could say maybe the attorney thinks he has some ammunition to

use in court despite the fact that there are ten victims now. >> i don't know -- >> alleged victims. >> i don't know what the attorney is thinking. you know, there has been a history in some cases involving celebrities in hollywood. where or politicians also where they will publicly pronounce their innocence just because of what they do for a living. we see how that works out. blagojevich is a good example after guy that tried to make a lot of press conferences and appearances. i think i appeared with him on some cnn show earlier when he was charged with a crime. well, he's being led off to federal prison now. it is generally not a good idea if you are a criminal defendant to be making public statements. it helps prosecutors prove the case. i think that if had thinks he's going to win the war of public relations here by having press conferences in which his client says, well, i'm not attracted to little boys, little girls, too. i mean, i'm not reading that as a good defense. you know, i think in the end somebody on the defense team is going to wake up and start

defend thing case like a criminal lawyer should defend the case and that means behind the scenes negotiations try to get the best deal possible for your client. >> we will see. >> imagine walking into a courtroom with ten struck times lined up across the front of the courtroom, if these cases are tried together, which is another whole question. i don't know how pennsylvania will handle that. >> i don't know. thanks as always. we appreciate your coming in so early. if you are waking up on the east coast, take your coat. a snowy start here with storms bringing lots of cold wind and heavy rain. we are tracking the latest forecast for you. and in the midst of warm, marines releasing video of a three-hour fire fight in afghanistan. tensions running high. ammo running low. we will explain in 16 minutes after the hour. ♪ i'm burning out this useless telephone ♪

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this just in to cnn. we are learning what the former head of mf global, jon corzine, former new jersey governor, is expected to say when he's called to testify in washington this morning. according to corzine's prepared

remarks, he will apologize to all those affected by his firm's rapid collapse. but it doesn't appear as though he is going to take responsibility for what happened. corzine is expected to address the missing estimated $1.2 billion in customer money. saying, quote, i simply do not know where the money is or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date. >> stay tuned. he is expected to appear before a panel on capitol hill today. let's head to atlanta now to check in with jacqui jeras. nasty weather out there this morning. >> there reallily is. it is moving out quickly. it will take a minute to melt off is t snow we had. take a look at the pictures out of north carolina. this was in boone. you know, up into the mountainous areas. and not just as you get the snow but really strong winds associated with this system. this is the same system that helped cause the santa annas merle the week. as it blows over those roads, it helped to keep them icy and it has been a rough commute for a

lot of people this morning. now, the only people still getting snow and rain at this hour is about the northern half of maine. this has been a fast mohr clipping out of here. it is going to be a dry day by the afternoon for everybody involved on this one. what's left in the wake is still the wind. that will be an issue for you travelers across the northeast. we have sustained winds still in the twints here. not to mention gusts reaching 50 miles per hour along the coast. the big cities, you guys got an all-rain event. it was record rain for you yesterday. washington, d.c., more than three inches. not only a record for the day but this is the most rain you have ever had in one day between the months of november and march. so that's quite a fair amount of normally for december you don't even have that much rainfall. boston also had a record about an inch and a half. two fronts we are dealing with. first one moving through. second one across the upper midwest. maybe a few light snow showers for you in omaha and des moines today. overall just another cold blast.

that cold air covering the eastern half and two-thirds of the country with highs -- temperatures right now in minneapolis, 23. check out dallas, guys. 30 degrees there. if you are complaining about the cold in the northeast, you are not alone. misery loves company. >> i was going to say -- it is finally winter. i don't know if i like it but it is finally winter, jacqui. >> i know. it will be around a little while. still to come this morning, inside a fire fight in afghanistan, a very rare look at combat in afghanistan from the marines' own photographs. [ woman on radio, indistinct ] ♪ bum-bum

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24 minutes past the hour. welcome back.

"minding your business" this morning. can the dow extend its three-day winning streak? stock futures slightly lower. investors are optimistic and as we are nearing europe's moment of truth. brussels, leaders of france and germany are expected to urge automatic eu members to adopt a new plan designed to event prevent a repeat of europe's debt crisis. the debt crisis is far from resolved. ratings agencies standard & poor's placed 17 members of the euro currency on review for a possible downgrade. germany and france are on that list. an hour from now we will get a fresh read on the employment situation. initial t initial jobless claims report is expected to show that 402,000 employment claims were filed for the first time last week. that's up slightly from the week before. and any time the number is above 400,000 it is not really the greatest sign for the labor market. justice department reportedly looking into alleged unfair pricing practices by electronic book sellers. at issue, whether companies like amazon and apple fixed prices to

block rivals. the move comes after similar investigations by european regulators. this morning the senate votes to move the nomination of richard cordre forward. tapped by president obama to lead the new financial watchdog agency. republicans have vowed to block the nomination. don't forget for the latest news about your money, check out the all new cnnmoney.com. "american morning" back after a short break. motor vehicle. sir, can you hear me? two, three. just hold the bag. we need a portable x-ray, please! [ nurse ] i'm a nurse. i believe in the power of science and medicine. but i'm also human. and i believe in stacking the deck. [ female announcer ] to nurses everywhere, thank you, from johnson & johnson.

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that's why we created the share the love event. get a great deal on a new subaru and $250 goes to your choice of 5 charities. with your help, we can reach $20 million dollars by the end of this, our fourth year. down! >> real war. a rare look at combat in afghanistan. from the marine's own photographers on this "american morning." 30 minutes past the hour. top stories for you now.

jerry sandusky trying the make bail this morning. the ex-penn state coach was arrested again on sexual assault charges involving two new accusers. sandusky faces a preliminary hearing tuesday where hi his lawyer will have the chance to question some of his accusers. more and more republicans are getting behind newt gingrich according to a new poll. gingrich leads romney in iowa, south carolina, and florida. he's also moved within nine percentage points of romney in his own backyard of new hampshire. the fda taking a close look at yaz and yasmin today. they will be hearing evidence about a dangerous side effect of the popular birth control pills. users have an increased risk of blood clots, two to three times higher than other birth control pills. more later from our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen. it is a rare look at a decade old war. marines releasing their own personal footage of a fire fight in afghanistan. one they didn't see coming. one they were determined not to

lose. our barbara starr's live at the pentagon with something you will see only on cnn. barbara, good morning. >> good morning to you. indeed the marines e-mailed out this footage that they shot. it was a three-hour fire fight at a small outpost in southern afghanistan. these are the men of first battalion six marine regimen. >> reloading! >> gets you out of nowhere. sleeping bag still. i was trying to hear clear went off. fires are going off. >> to northwest of us across the river, they they there are caves in the ridge line that they will crawl into and engage us from the there. >> ammo. by the time, like, a couple of hours, we were like -- had 100

still left. that was it. >> 30 mull meet perfect grenades hitting inside the compound. getting close, real close. casualty. cold casualties. you hear about people being battle tested. this one tested the boys good get him on the bird as fast as possible. >> one hell of a day. you are thinking, yeah, radio patrol. any other day. it ain't happening that way. definitely teach lot of people -- got to be ready from now on. you never know what will happen from now on. we lost -- one person, injuries. who knows what will happen next.

>> another day. another day. >> hopefully whoever see this one knows what happens. at the end of the day, we are the ones out here. >> woe want to you know that this video was provided by u.s. marine lance corporal jacob lagozi who filmed all of this while under fire in that fire fight. we checked ought of the marines that were wounded are either recovering or already returned to duty. but just listen to what they had to say. they were down to their last 100 rounds for their 50 caliber machine guns. they did call in air strikes to take care of what was happening there. >> barbara starr live at the pentagon for that. new this morning, deadly helicopter crash near las vegas last night. five people killed when the chopper crashed down in the river mountains. southeast of las vegas.

sundance helicopters. flying a group of tourists over the hoover dam. still unclear why the crash happened. former illinois governor rod blagojevich sentenced to 14 years for trying to sell president obama's old senate seat. blagojevich said he was sorry in court yesterday but the judge said that apology sounded more like a politician or a lawyer. four people busted in a plot to sneak the son of fallen libya leader glad gl eer gadhafi into. they planned to slip into into the country using fake documents. he is still living in najir while he fled during the unrest in libya. huge victory for egypt's islamists in the runoff elections. muslim brotherhood's freedom and justice party claims it won 34 seats. the ultra conservative party claims five seats. this is the first round of parliamentary elections since the uprising that toppled

longtime ruler hosni mubarak back in february. actor alec baldwin apologizing to fellow passengers that were delayed when he kicked off an american airlines flight for refusing to stop playing words with friends on his mobile phone. baldwin, though, has a different message for the airline and the industry itself. he says air travel is inelegant and akin to a greyhound bus experience. >> all right. still to come this morning, newt gingrich rising. he has a commanding lead in three early voting states. is the former house speaker built for the long run? our political panel weighs in. >> we will tell you why the fda is taking a look at two popular birth control pills after reports of health risks. senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen with what you need to know, just ahead on her american. 35 minutes past the hour. ♪

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it is 38 minutes past the hour. welcome back. you may not -- he may not be president but newt gingrich wants to mack one thing perfectly clear -- he is the front runner in the race for the republican nomination. polls in three of the first four voting states give the former house speaker a commanding lead. but can he stay on top? joining us from washington, editor of the frumforum.com. welcome. >> thank you. good to be here. >> nice to have you here. david, let's start with you. those polls show gingrich leading in south carolina and iowa. he is leading big time in florida. it looks great. but when you take a deeper look at the polls, the people polled say that they are not so passionate about gingrich even though they will support him. >> right. >> you have to look at the polls in conjunction with the calendar. we had these balloons before. with other candidates and this probably is a balloon of people looking for an alternative to

mitt romney. only this time the balloon -- the balloons take five to eight weeks to deflate and we are five weeks away from new hampshire. that -- so the balloon may stay aloft just long enough for gingrich. the problem is that the -- the things that got gingrich into trouble when he was a leader of the republican party in the nineties are all still there inside of him. i think a lot of republicans are going to get worried as we get closer to voting day that does have the steadiness and const t constancy to be an effect iive. >> this isn't lost on mitt romney, of course. this morning his campaign is going to hold this press conference, he is going to call on politicians and say gingrich was really bad to work with back in the a '90s. gingrich had this response to wall -- wolf blitzer yesterday. let's listen. >> i wish everybody had loved me but i would rather be effective representing the american people than be popular inside

washington. >> isn't he an insider? >> no question about that. and i think voters understand that. he is somebody that in the '90s, you know, talks about wanting to be effective for the american people. and you look at a lot of the republicans that worked with him. they will say that he was exactly the opposite of that for the republican party. he almost ruined the republican brand. i think that that's what you are going to hear from a lot of republicans and i think that that is the danger in a newt gingrich nomination because he's completely undisciplined and there's a lot of rich history in terms of his record that democrats and republicans and independents are going to be reminded of by either romney or the democrats if he does end up being the nominee. and i think that that is what -- that's the danger of newt gingrich. sometimes newt gingrich is his own worst enemy. >> david, of course, all of this isn't lost on mitt romney, as i said. he has this new ad out that looks like it is aimed right -- it is aimed right at gingrich.

there is no secret about it. let's take a look. >> i have been married to the same woman for 25 -- excuse me, i will get in trouble, for 42 years. i have been in the same church my entire life. i worked at one company for 25 years. i left that to go off and help the olympic games. if i'm president of the united states, i will be true to my family, to my faith, and our country and i will never apologize for the united states of america. >> okay. that looks like a one-two punch to me. mitt romney will drag out the republicans who will say oh, god, gingrich is so awful to work with and then poking at gingrich's infidelities. effective? >> i don't think that's the way to go. the infidelities, although the american public may have forgotten about them, republican primary voters know all about them. the problem -- i think that -- that ad will look a little bit too i'm perfect than thou. the real problem for newt gingrich among republicans is republicans don't like mitt romney because he used to be for the health care mandate.

so did gingrich. republicans have questions about mitt romney because mitt romney thinks this global warming is real and possibly man-made. so did gingrich used to think. republicans want somebody who can be an effective challenger to president obama but when -- back in the 'fwhints gingrich was on the -- full public view he had the highest negatives ever recorded for a political leader. he was effectively removed. hay remained speaker of the house until after the 1998 elections. effectively removed by the top person in that caucus after the 1996 elections when tom delay was put in charge because tom delay was effective at getting things done for the american people. that was -- as she said that was the problem with gingrich in the '90s. he lost the government shutdown. >> why doesn't mitt romney point those things out? >> i don't know. i think -- this is the easy punch to throw. but it is a dangerous punch. >> let's talk about electability. chris christie, very popular, among republicans. especially among tea party

republicans. this is what he had to say about mitt romney who he has endorsed. this is what christie said at a rally yesterday. let's listen. >> he's the only person who i believe can legitimately take the fight to barack obama this november. so as republicans we know we love our party. but i will tell you, that if you are looking for the candidate who agrees with you on everything, buy a mirror. >> okay. maria, will republicans listen? >> well, that's -- >> as a democrat that you are. >> right. exactly. that's going to be the big question. because the issue with mitt romney, we have seen this in focus groups done amongst republican voters, at their core, they do not like him because they do not trust him. and the issue with mitt romney, we have seen this, you know, that the dnc keeps running ads, and videos. pointing all of this out. it is a critical issue if you are looking to elect a commander

in chief, up want somebody that you can trust. mitt romney has been on both sides of some of the most major issues that are facing our country. and voters at a gut level when they go into the voting booth, they want to elect somebody, that, a, they can trust. mitt romney is -- has not been that kind of can't dated throughout his political career. political career. b, somebody who is positive and optimistic and that they believe is -- is somebody that can lead the country with that optimism. frankly, newt gingrich is not that kind of person. >> that i think is a problem that's facing the republicans. >> i want to you weigh in, too. when you put newt gingrich up against president obama, or mitt romney up against president obama, at this point in time, who has the upper hand? >> mitt romney can beat president obama and newt gingrich can't. much -- something we tend not to pay enough attention to, be an effective president the day after he takes the office. not just choosing a candidate. we are choosing a president.

and, you know, i think that christie had a -- governor christie had a great line about the mirror. mitt romney has been all over the place on some issues. gingrich has been to more places on more issues. here's the thing people know about mitt romney. there are going to be two issues probably facing the next president at home. and they are, one, to get the economy on course and two, come to some kind of fiscal balance for the country. anybody who is president will do either of those things. romney is opposed to barack obama and will -- emphasize private sector solutions and emphasize spending reap strant rather than tax reductions. that's the mix. that's the ballot question i. and it is just as clear where gingrich -- sorry. mitt romney will come down on those questions as newt gingrich but mitt romney's white house won't be a chaos a. >> it has been great. thanks to you both. many thanks. >> thank you. still ahead, millions of women use it. new research shows birth control

pills, yaz and yasmin, may have a dangerous side effect. fda is stepping in. senior medical core department elizabeth cohen will join us and join us in a couple of minutes. captain, we have to keep going! [ growling ] one step at a time. come on, snowy. look! did you ever see a more beautiful sight? captain! it's just a mirage. - snowy? what is it, boy? - [ barks ] what do you see? [ yipping ] [ woman announcing ] just like snowy, your dog's one of a kind. overactive imagination and all. [ barking ]

long live your buddy. long live your dog. [ tintin ] snowy! purina dog chow. see the adventures of tintin, only in theaters. here is what you need to know to start your day. jerry sandusky in jail this morning. trying to make bail. after police arrested the ex-penn state coach yesterday on child sexual assault charges

involving two new accusers. in washington, the former head of mf global, jon corzine will go before lawmakers who want to question the former new jersey governor about the collapse of his brokerage firm. in his prepared statements, corzine is expected to say he does not know where the missing $1.2 billion in customer money went. a court in thailand sentenced a thai born american to 2 1/2 years in prison for insulting the thai monarchy. it is a charge that could have landed joe gordon behind bars for 20 years because the king is myly revered. gordon's attorney says he plans to file for a royal pardon. police on long island say they are one step closer to finding a missing woman who sparked the search for a serial killer. police found the pocketbook belonging to shannon gilbert. casey anthony back in civil court today.

attorneys fwill ask for anthony to answer all questions. she invoked her fifth amendment right 60 times. they claim she falsely accused her of kidnapping her daughter. you will remember anthony was acquitted on murder caylee. remember, anthony was acquitted of her daughter's murder back in july. a cold and wet morning for folks on the east coast this morning. look at that, a storm system is moving from the mid-atlantic up to new england, bringing with it lots of rain and some heavy snow. caught up on the day's headlines. "american morning" is back after this.

welcome back. carol is joining me right now. >> hi to get some tea. >> thanks for rejoining the program. >> it's 52 minutes after the hour. time for your a.m. house call. two promising drugs could be a huge breakthrough in breast cancer treatment. a new study found an experimental drug held cancer at bay for an extra six months when given with the standard treatment. meantime, another drug typically used for treating patients with kidney or pancreatic cancer slowed breast cancer progression for an extra four months. more than 200,000 people are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. the morning after pill will not be made available over the counter to young teens. it will stay prescription only for girls under 17. the secretary of health and

human services overuruled an fd regulation saying more research needs to be done on plan "b."" >> they were marketed as wonder drugs, yaz and yasmin used by hundreds of women across the country but these popular birth control bills may have dangerous side effects. >> research shows the pills are linked with higher risks for blood clots so the fda is stepping in holding a hearing to talk about the health concerns. senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen is live in atlanta for us. elizabeth, what are we learning about the drugs? >> all birth control pills carry an increased rick of getting blood clots, but what we're learning now is that these drugs may be even a higher risk, two to three times higher risk, of getting a blood clot than other birth control pills, and i'll tell you, you know, if you didn't see an ad for these drugs, it means you weren't watching much television. heavily, heavily marketed drugs, and now some experts are saying that women need to really be attuned to their bodies when

they are taking these drugs. yaz and yasmin especially for the first six months. pay attention to soreness in legs a pay attention if you feel shortness of breath. >> why wasn't this known before? >> right, that's the million dollar question, right? because the companies have to do studies on drugs before they put them on the market, but what happened is bayer did the studies and once it got on the market independent doctors did studies and say, hey wait a minute, our studies don't mesh at all. we're finding that it's a much higher rate of complications, and that's why they are having an fda hearing to say, gee, why did bayer found such lower risk of risk rather than regular doctors. >> if you're taking this right now, what do you do? >> don't panic. if you are concerned, go to your doctor and you think about, wow, talk to your doctor about whether he or she is concerned and say is there an alternative and that's the key here. that's what i want people to remember about this. just because a drug is

advertised on television does not make it better than its competitors. all it means is that the pharmaceutical company decided to spend a lot of money on it. there are many other forms of birth control pills out there. be an empowered patient and not get sucked in by advertisings. the advertising is beautiful. women running through fields and looking all pretty and everything. i mean, i love watching those, but it doesn't mean that it's a better drug. all it means is that it's a new drug, and new drugs carry higher risk than old drugs. old drugs have been out forever, right? so, you know, everyone knows what the side effects are pretty much because millions upon millions of women are taking it. when you see an ad, that means it's new. >> elizabeth, that kind of doesn't make me feel any better because i should have known through government checks what yaz can and cannot do and what the side effects really are and aren't. it makes me wonder about every drug, every birth control pill that's out there. >> but here's the difference. when you have a new birth control pill, it's been tested on let's say tens of thousands of women or at the most maybe

hundreds of thousands of women. when you have a birth control pill that's been out there for decades, millions of women have tak taken, it so it's a much higher standard, full. millions of women have taken it, and if they haven't seen terrible problems with it, it's probably a pretty safe drug. >> thank goodness for the millions of guinea pigs out there. >> pretty much, that's what it is. that's what it is. >> elizabeth cohen, thank you so much. good to see you as always. >> thanks. >> sometimes orders don't work between the lines and sometimes to get noticed they don't work. today we introduce to you tristan eaton who has grown up since his days as a graffiti artist. watch. >> i'm tristan eaton, i'm the president and creative director of thunderdogs. this is a perfect example of what i love about doing commercial art and collaborating with brands. i was contacted by the obama campaign, and i ended up

creating three posters for the vote for change campaign to be able to be involved formally, to do something official was so cool because it feels like you're making a piece of history. >> and you can catch the next list each sunday at 2:00 p.m. sunday right here on cnn. >> still to come this morning, my interview with former president bill clinton. hear what he has to say about newt gingrich's rise in the polls. that's next. you ready for your present? yeah. all right, i'll be right back. okay. ♪ [ male announcer ] sometimes the giving can be just as amazing as the gift. what do you think? [ laughs ] ♪ [ male announcer ] the lexus december to remember sales event is here,

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jerry sandusky trying to make bail again. i'm carol cosello. the ex-penn state coach facing new child abuse charges, and they may not be the last. >> and i'm alina cho. they may have butted heads in washington but newt gingrich earning praise from his one-time rival, the comeback kid bill clinton on this "american morning."

and good morning to you. it is thursday, december 8th. >> welcome to "american morning." i'm alina cho along with carol costello on this thursday morning. jerry sandusky could be let out of police today. police arrested the ex-penn state coach yesterday on sexual assault charges involving two new accusers. >> yeah, and one of those accusers says his cries for help were ignored. jason carroll live for us in belfont, pennsylvania. good morning, jason. >> reporter: and good morning to you. inmate number 11-1079, that is the number that jerry sandusky is being held here at the center county correctional facility. he has not posted bail yet, and he continues to deny all the allegations. for the second time in two months, jerry sandusky, a former assistant former football coach at penn state, was hauled away

in handcuffs facing charges of child sexual abuse. in a new grand jury finding, two more alleged victims identified as number 9 and 10, claims sandusky abused them as children. both accusers say they met sandusky through his second mile foundation. they claim he took an interest in them, inviting them to his home for meals and on outings and gradually engaged in sex acts with him. alleged victim number 9 was between 11 and 12 years old when he first met sdusky in 2004. he testified that over three years he often visited sandusky's home and slept over in a basement bedroom. there he says sandusky forced him to perform oral sex and tried to rape him at least 16 times, at times succeeding. the victim testified that on at least one occasion he screamed for help knowing that sandusky's wife was upstairs, but no one ever came to help him. alleged victim number 10, a foster child, says sandusky had oral sex with him and fondled

him in a pool on the penn state campus. sandusky's attorney denies the new allegations. >> i -- i have no doubt what he's maintained from the outset of the first allegation involving accuser number 1, he's maintained his innocence and has maintained his innocence all the way through. >> reporter: new incidents follow what prosecutors say follow a similar pattern identified in a previous grand jury report, grooming them with money, gifts and taking them to penn state games. the new accusers say sandusky often told them he loved them and not to tell anyone. and bail is set at $250,000. if sandusky is able to post bail later today, he'll be under house arrest and will also have some sort of an electronic monitoring device as well. the next legal hurdle for him is next week. that is tuesday. that will be a preliminary

hearing. >> thank you, jason. all right, jason, thank you very much. new developments in the syracuse sexual abuse scandal. one of the former coach's bernie fine's accusers is taking him to court. zach tom celibacy his name and plans to announce a civil suit. this comes after a new york prosecutor said the statute of limitations prevents them from criminally charging fine in two other alleged abuse cases. in an exclusive interview with cnn's gary tuchman, the d.a. says before fine was fired, he was trying to get the coach away from young people. >> before the feds got involved in this case i met with bernie fine's lawyer and with bobby davis' permission i suggested the following snareio. i said, look, i -- i have proof that bobby davis is telling the truth. the lawyer didn't seem surprised by that. bernie fine needs to acknowledge that bobby is telling the truth. that's important. bernie fine then can say all the

lawyerly things he likes. i'm going into counseling, trying to save my marriage, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. that's irrelevant to me. he has to say all those things and resign from syracuse university with the knowledge that we're going to continue to investigate him, and the lawyer and i, you know, went back and forth, and we were fairly close to a resolution with those stipulations. >> now fill fitzpatrick also made a point of saying the allegations by fine's two original accusers were credible. >> dramatic new gains by republican candidate was all by forgotten until just a few weeks ago, we're talking, of course, about the former house speaker newt gingrich. >> that's right. according to new cnn/"time" orc polls, gingrich leads in three of the first four nominating states, south carolina, florida and iowa, and over in new hampshire, where the former massachusetts governor has a vacation home, his backyard, if you will, romney leads gingrich

now by just nine points. >> and the former house speaker spent some time with our wolf blitzer, and while gingrich may be upbeat about his surge in the polls, he's not ready at least publicly to presume he will be the nominee. >> is it too early to say it's yours to lose? >> well, it's either mine or romney. we're the two -- >> what about any of the other candidates? >> we either two front-runners, it's a fair thing to say without diminishing anybody. the both of us have different kinds of strengths, but -- but romney's a very formidable opponent. >> just yesterday i spoke to newt gingrich's one-time political reich. we're talking about former president bill clinton. i asked the former president for his take on gingrich's surge in the polls as well as what he thinks of the former front-runner mitt romney and also jon huntsman. >> somebody -- one of the -- some -- one of the journalists reminded me the other day that when all of his staff left and

he was, you know, tanking out, i predicted that he would have another run, that he would come back, and i -- i had honestly forgotten it, but the guy said i've got it on tape, i remember when you did it. he is first resilient, and secondly he's always thinking, and he's got a million ideas. i mean, and some of them are good, and some of them i think are horrible. i thought in that last debate he had the most responsible position on immigration. he was the only guy that didn't just totally jump in the tank with the tea party send them all home yesterday, never mind what they have done, never mind how many taxes they have paid or never mind whether their kids are in the schools, and the very next day and he says, and by the way,' ought to amend the constitution so i can abolish the ninth circuit. it's too liberal. get rid of it, and there's a federal judge over here in another state i want to fire because he made a decision i didn't like so, you know, he has good days and bad days, and

we'll just have to see what happens, but he'll certainly make it entertaining. >> do you think he's the strongest in the field? >> i don't know. i don't know. but -- in both our party and in theirs, very often the strongest person for the nomination is not necessarily the strongest person in the general election, and it's a mistake to underestimate governor romney because of, you know, he's performed well in all these debates and did a lot of rather impressive things as governor of massachusetts. i don't think he ought to apologize for the health care program. inflation rate in health care costs has been less than the rest of the country and the health outcomes about better and have the highest number of insured people in the country so i wouldn't be apologizing that if i were in his position, and i think that it's just hard to say who is going to win.

the only one who hasn't really had a run yet is huntsman and i think a lot of him. he's actually qualified to be president so it will be interesting to see whether he gets his run. >> always fascinating to hear what former president clinton has to say about the political race. jon huntsman, by the way, will be a guest on "john king, usa" tonight. catch that interview at 6:00 p.m. eastern right here on cnn. >> and we're learning what the former head of mf global, jon corzine, is expected to say when he's called to testify in washington later this morning. according to corzine's prepared remarks, he will apologize to all those affected by his firm's rapid collapse, but does not appear as though he's going to take responsibility for mf global's failure. >> corzine is expected to address the missing estimated $1.2 billion in customer money saying, quote, i simply do not know where the money is or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date. let's head to atlanta now and jek in with jacqui jeras and

nasty conditions across the country. >> it is, but only 40% of the u.s. has snow on the ground so if you live in the 60% area, consider yourself lucky, and that includes new york. check out the pictures we have for you from tennessee. this is yesterday. some light snow came down in the memphis area and started to melt off and created kind of a slushy mess, and in north carolina the wind really kicked in with the system, and you can see that snow blowing across the roadways and making them even icier. the good news is this is such a fast moving system it's out of here just about for everybody except for extreme northern parts of maine. you've really got to be off to the east of i-95 to get any of the snow or rain so we're just left with the cold and that's going to be one of the big stories over the next couple of days are the cold temperatures that are going to be left behind the front and to add insult to injury, a secondary shot of cold air already making its way into the upper midwest. it's going to bring a little light snow maybe over towards omaha and des moines but not a

big deal for you. ahead of that system, we do have freezing fog that includes you in memphis still and down into parts of mississippi, so be aware of that today. now, what that cold air is going to do here the next couple of days as it continues to push on in, it's going to move over those great lakes, so that's warm still. the lakes are very warm, and so when that happens, yeah, the lake-effect snow machine begins to kick on in, so this is going to be kind of a moderate event now and heading into the weekend. we could see a good ten inches of snow, lee of the lakes, so be aware of that. otherwise, everybody else is just cold and sunny anyways. 37 in chicago and 44 new york, guys, but that's kind of an early start. we're not really going to warm up much more than you are, unfortunately. >> that's okay. we realize now it is december. >> that's right. >> thank you. coming up, three women -- this story is incredible. three women, total strangers, kicked off an airtran plane in palm beach. they claim that a flight attendant was acting like a

bully. call it reverse air rage. we're going to talk to one of the ladies kicked off the plane next. >> and new clues this morning in the search for a possible serial killer. coming up, what police say they found while securing a beach near new york. it's 11 minutes past the hour. and this isn't a movie. this is real war on the front lines, taking fire and casualties in afghanistan. we'll have that story for you next. [ indistinct talking on radio ]

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welcome back. it's 16 minutes after the hour. three him, total strangers, until they all got booted off an air tran plane. it happened in west palm beach, florida. they say they were escourted back to the terminal, get this, by two armed deputy sheriffs, and the women blame, a quote, bully fle bully flight attendant for the bizarre ordeal. good morning to both of you. thanks for joining us. carol, you were one of the three women kicked off that flight. >> yes, i was. >> how did it all start? >> started with the passenger behind me who i didn't know. she asked the flight attendant to please not squish her bag. she was sort of moving them around rather aggressively, and he -- he made some comment to her, and she said you don't have to be rude, and he paused for a

minute, and i said my seat is broken, and he looked at me and said i'm not talking to you now, and then eventually another woman across the -- across the aisle said this is ridiculous. why are you being this way. >> you were all three kicked off the flight? >> immediately, immediately. >> what did this flight attendant say to you? >> he immediately said you're off the flight. >> and then when did the armed deputies come in. >> first, the customer service from -- from palm beach came in, and then these two policemen came in. >> what were you thinking at that point? >> the policemen -- >> i can't believe it was even happening. i mean, just said come on, this is ridiculous, let's make this work, let's go, but he was adamant. customer service went to the pilot. said these women have done nothing, and he said if -- if they are on the plane, i'm walking, and the pilot said then i'm walking, too, so they came back and said, you know, you're either -- we're either cancelling the flight or you're off. >> now air tran rebooked you obviously on another flight.

they gave you two free tickets. is that enough? >> well, i think they flatter themselves to think we'd want to fly air tran again. i mean, really. they all admitted that we did nothing. >> janet, you know, obviously this is an unusual situation. i mean, have you ever heard of anything like this happening before i? certainly happened. >> what happened on monday was highly unusual and certainly a terrible experience for those involved, but it's very, very rare. there's 700 million enplanements in the u.s. today, and less than 0.1% of passengers are asked off a plane, so it's incredibly rare. >> it is incredible, and, i mean, three women, all about the same age. don't know each other. perfect strangers. the oddsch th odds of this happ you mentioned, incredibly rare. given what's happened though, in this situation what is your right as a passenger? >> so, any time anyone gets on a plane, buys an airline ticket

and gets on a plane, they are now under the contract of carriage of that airline. >> so you don't have any rights? >> so in essence, no. the pilot, the flight crew, they are ultimately responsible for the safety of the passengers and then they get to choose who gets on and who is asked off. >> carol, i mean, are you considering taking any action, filing a lawsuit? have you spoken to anyone about this? have you spoken to the women, the other women? >> oh, i've spoken to the women. the head of customer service earl williams has called me once, never returned the calls. i'm just not very impressed with all of that. no, i don't know what i'm going to do. i just don't want to be put on the no-fly list. >> it has been a couple of days since this happened. are you less mad? are you more mad? >> we were more sort of dazed by it. we just couldn't believe that he so would so quickly decide we're off the plane. in a matter of minutes he decided that. >> right, you know, i -- i find it interesting, too, janet, when

you look at these types of situations, you know, who could forget that jetblue flight attendant who had just had it, grabbed two beers and went down the slide and, you know, i mean, has it come to this? mean, are flight attendants really under that much more stress than they were before? >> so anybody who has flown recently knows that flying is a totally different experience these days. flights are incredibly full. airlines are looking to make profits so they are charging you for lots of incidentals so it's really a different kind of an experience and ultimately the flight crew is responsible for your safety, but they are also being asked to do so much more, negotiate with passengers, sell on board, maintain a nice atmosphere, represent the airline, so flight attendants are really asked to do so much more than they ever have been asked to do in the past. >> frankly passengers now are bringing their bags on the plane because they don't want to pay the baggage fee so you're dealing with not just the passengers but also all of that

baggage as well, so, i mean, i understand that they are not under stress, not to excuse what happened necessarily. >> right. >> now given that, southwest airlines which owns air tran did release a statement. we want to put it up on the screen there. they said, quote, as we do in situations such as these, we will review the reports, have one-on-one conversations with our involved employees and take away any keep learnings that we might uncover. what do you think about that? >> well, i think that they ought to take some comments from the people sitting around us, but everybody was just floored that he could -- he had the power to do this and he did it so quickly, and for so little reason. >> it is incredible. i mean, i have to say, got my attention. janet, one more thing? >> i will say, not to defend airlines because customer service really is an important point, but what air tran actually did for the customers went above and beyond what is required of an airline. really in essence, what an airline, if they ask you off a

plane, the only thing they are required to do is refund you the money. they don't need to re-accommodate you or give you anything free. >> carol doesn't sound so happy about that because she may give away those tickets. >> i don't want those tickets. >> i appreciate how horrible it must have been. >> sure. but to be bumped off the plane and then have the head of customer service in palm beach say you really didn't do anything wrong and also for the policemen to say that we hadn't done anything wrong and they weren't able to cool down the flight attendant. >> you know, as a frequent traveler i think one of the things that's really important to recognize, once you're up at 35,000 feet, you're in an airplane, there's not so much that you can do. >> right. >> an airline wants to make sure there's no potential bad feelings, any potential security risks before they take off, so that's -- that's i think what happens a lot, it doesn't happen very often, but that's a consideration when -- >> doesn't make carol and these other two women feel any better certainly. you still look a little bit

jolted. so sorry that this happened to you. we'll be following and tracking what happened and what the airline says in the coming weeks, so thank you both for joining us this morning. still to come on "american morning," former president bill clinton talks about chelsea's evolution to first daughter to network reporter. 23 minutes after the hour. we're back after this. ♪ [ multiple snds ng melodic tune ] ♪ [ malennounc ] at northrop grumman, makthworld a feplace. th's value performance. northr gruan. [ woman ] i know my kids are growing up. i see it in last year's pictures. i hear it in their plans for tomorrow. it makes me miss a couple of things.

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it's 26 minutes past the hour. minding your business this morning. can the market's three-day winning streak hold? right now u.s. stock futures are trading pretty frat, but a lot of volatility in the markets given what's happened in europe. in brussels, leaders of france and germany will urge all eu members to adopt a brand new

plan designed to prevent a repeat of europe's debt crisis. ratings agency standard & poor's placed 17 members of the euro currency zone on review for a possible downgrade. germany and france happen to be on that list. and in just a few minutes, we'll get a fresh read on the employment situation. the initial jobless claims report is expected to show that 402,000 unemployment claims were filed for the first time last week. that's up slightly from the week before. any time that number is above 400,000, it's not a great sign for the labor market. and this morning, the senate votes to move the nomination of richard cordray forward. he was tapped by president obama to lead the new financial watchdog agency. republicans have vowed to block the nomination. and the government wants your opinion on its new so-called plain english credit card agreements. the consumer protection financial bureau unveiled an example of the new form yesterday. it has over 1,000 words. that's compared to the 5,000 words that make up the current

credit card agreements. and coming up, a rare look at combat from a marine's helmet-cam. "american morning" back after a break. her sophomore year ♪ ♪ co-signed her credit card - "buy books, not beer!" ♪ ♪ but the second that she shut the door ♪ ♪ girl started blowing up their credit score ♪ ♪ she bought a pizza party for the whole dorm floor ♪ ♪ hundred pounds of makeup at the makeup store ♪ ♪ and a ticket down to spring break in mexico ♪ ♪ but her folks didn't know 'cause her folks didn't go ♪ ♪ to free-credit-score-dot-com hard times for daddy and mom. ♪ v.o.: offer applies with enrollment in not bad..only two meetings what's my today.ok like? can i walk to the belvedere hotel from here? here are directions to belvedere hotel. read me that text. new message from sarah russell:'see you soon' do you think it will snow today? it sure looks like snow today.

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real war, a rare look at combat in afghanistan from the marines own photographers on this "american morning." 31 minutes past the hour. time for the top story this morning. jerry sandusky trying to make bail this morning. the ex-penn state coach was arrested again on sexual assault charges involving two new accusers. sandusky faces a preliminary hearing on tuesday where his lawyer will have a chance to question the accusers. >> the allegations are credible, but too old to prosecute. a new york prosecutor says

ex-syracuse basketball coach bernie fine will not be criminally charged with sexually abusing two former ballboys because the statute of limitations has expired. meantime, a third accuser plans to announce a civil suit today. >> newt gingrich making major strides in the race for the republican presidential nomination, and the proof is in the polls. a new cnn/"time" orc poll shows newt leading in iowa, south carolina and florida, and gingrich is closing in on mitt romney in new hampshire. meanwhile, there's a significant development in the case of a missing sex worker and what could be a serial killer on the loose near new york city. >> police are searching long island's south shore. they say they found some items belonging to the missing woman whose disappearance prompted a search that turned up ten bodies. chris snoelz was on long island and joins us now to fill us in on the latest. >> good morning. she's been missing now for more than a year and a half. police say they think they are finally closer to finding her. over the last two days they have

told us they found a purse, clothes and a cell phone all belonging to shannon gilbert. gilbert, who is from new jersey, went missing in may of 2010 after she advertised sex services on craig'slist. later in the search ten other victims were found, all believed to be the victims of one serial killer operating on long island for 15 years. police were able to more effectively search the area on long island's south shore because the water has receded a little bi. the tide has gone back. they have cut down the brush and all of that exposing newly discovered items. gilbert was known to be in that area after she made an early morning 911 call saying someone was trying to hurt her. she also knocked on a door there and screamed "help me, help me" and indicated that someone was chasing her but then she ran

off. police say they believe they will find the remains there as well and plan to search that area again today. the weather today, of course, drying out a little bit from all that rainfall that we've had in the past day or so. >> so they found things belonging to her. >> yeah. >> but not her body. >> not yet. they think they are close though, and they think in the -- in the -- that this case is not connected to those others despite the similarities, and here's what that police officer had to say out there in long island. this may be just a young lady ran into the brush in a hysterical state and fell down and -- and, you know, expired for some reason. >> yeah. it's really a wild area out there. a road that goes along and brush on either side of it, and it's very swampy. now they have the pocketbook and the cell phone, dry them both out and see what they will be able to get. >> they may find something in her cell phone. seems strange she's calling 911,

knocking on doors yelling help me, help me and police assume she died accidentally. >> let's just say i think it's very good to be skeptical. you know, we report on what they say that they are thinking. we're working off police theories. they were thrown off i think a little bit because there was a body of a man and a toddler found in the same stretch of beach as well. it turns out that that man was dressed in women's clothing and the toddler was related to one of the other victims who was, again, part of this sex industry. >> all right. chris knowles there with the latest on when appears to be a serial killer on long island. chris, thank you very much. it's a rare look at a decade old war. marines releasing their own personal footage of a fire fight in afghanistan, one they didn't see coming, one they were determined not to lose. >> barbara starr is live at pentagon with something you'll see only on cnn. hey, barbara, good morning. >> good morning to you. well, it was a three-hour fire fight at a remote outpost in southern afghanistan. i want you to meet the men of

first battalion 6th marine regiment. >> reloading! >> came out of nowhere. in a sleeping bag still. hearing the flare go off, rpg and fires started going off. >> just to the northwest of us across the river, they have a ridge line up there, and there's a cage in the ridge line that they will crawl into, and they engage us from there. >> by the time, like a couple of hours, we probably had 100 still left for 50 cal and that was. it just got really bad real quick. >> slow it down!

>> 30 millimeter grenades hitting inside the compound, getting close, real close to a casualty, took a couple casualties. you hear about people being battle tested. this one tested the boys. >> you have to get him on the birm as fast as possible. >> been one hell of a day. you're thinking, yeah, regular patrol any other day. it ain't happening that way. definitely teach a lot of people that everybody's got to be ready from now on. you never know what's going to happen from now on. we lost one person to injuries, i mean, who knows what's going to happen next. >> another day, man. another day. >> hopefully those who see it will actually know that this happens. at end of the day, we either ones out here.

>> reporter: that video, most of it shot by a young lance corporal jacob lagozi, all wounded have recovered and returned to duty. listen to what they say. they were down to their last rounds for the 50 cal machine before help was called in. >> amazing, amazing pictures. thanks for bringing that to us this morning. people are dropping more than green in the salvation army bucket, silver dollars, gold bars, even diamonds. find out what other surprises the bell ringers are bring in. that's up next. it's 38 minutes past the hour. plus, i speak with former president bill clinton. find out what he says his daughter chelsea has done to finally hit her stride. we'll have that interview coming up next.

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♪ welcome back. it's 42 minutes after the hour. it's that time of year again. the salvation army bell-ringers

are back, and they are bringing in big donations, more than just hard cash. people are dropping gold coins, even diamonds into the little red buckets. we're joined by major george hood, the national community relations and development secretary for the salvation army. major hood, good morning. thanks for joining us. >> oh, thank you for having me. >> i understand you've been a bell ringer since the age of 10 and have been doing it every year since then. congratulations. quite impressive. we hear every year about bell ringers finding the strange but incredibly valuable items in the kettle what. types of things have you found this year? >> well this year already we've seen from a $20 gold coin in ft. myers florida, which, by the way is the seventh straight year that someone has dropped one of these gold coins into a kettle in ft. myers, to five south african creugerands and a $5,000 diamond ring. all sorts of things will appear

in the red kettles, and kind of fascinating to watch. >> the gold coin that you mentioned that's worth $1,400, based on gold prices these days. the note there said in loving memory of mimi which is such a nice gesture. a lot of people are wondering what you do with all these valuable items. do you sell them then for the cash. >> we do. it's very important we liquidate them into real cash, take them to jewellers and coin dealers and have them evaluated, and they tell us what it's worth. it's important to understand the money that's raised in the red kettles, in every local community across the united states, that money stays in that community to meet the needs of families there. we can do a lot more with a gold coin by liquidating it and getting it the cash than looking at it in all of its beauty. >> obviously we don't need to remind people that the economy, you know, facing tough times with the economy. has that impacted you in terms

of donations this year? >> well, we've seen a very interesting thing take place over the last three years with the american economy. the american people are so generous and have placed so much trust in the salvation army. we have seen a growth in the amount of money we raise in the red kettles three consecutive years. >> do you know how much you've raised so far? >> last year we raised $142-2-million in the red kettle program, and i looked at numbers yesterday, and we're about 2% of where we were were ahead ago, ahead. >> it's nostalgia, to a certain degree. i found this interesting. i remember reading recently that you -- well, i know that you've been accepting online donations for about seven years but this year you're testing something out new with mobile devices, that the kettle ringers actually carry with them.

in part so that there's no excuse anymore if you don't carry cash with you, right? how does it work? >> that's right. we're trying to stay on the cutting edge with technology and the device you're referencing is called the square, and it's a very simple postage stamp-sized device that you put into your mobile phone, your smartphone, and you can swipe a credit card through it and make a donation. have you to get the app, of course. the app with the salvation army donation page. when you fire it up, it says how much do you want to donate. you winter the number, swipe your card, and in a matter of seconds the transaction is complete. >> you know, i -- i know that some people know this and some people don't. discuss what you know about the programs the funds will support. >> first of all, the christmas programs we do all across the country. we want to make sure that during this very special time of year that families have food on the

table, that children have toys under the christmas tree and that they are able to celebrate christmas the way most of us do. the funds that are left over stay in that community, and those monies are used to fund utult bill payment, making sure people are eating healthy foods, warm coats for children during the winter, housing. seniors being taken care of, a variety of ministries and programs that we operate throughout the year. >> wish you the best of luck throughout the rest of the holiday season. you still have time to donate, often. major george hood of the salvation army, we thank you. >> thank you. still to come on "american morning," former president bill clinton talks about his wife's hillary's plans for the future and whether she may run for president. also, what he thinks about chelsea's job as a network correspondent. 46 minutes after the hour. that interview is next. all energy development comes with some risk,

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it's 48 minutes past the hour. here are your morning headlines. the labor department just announced that 381,000 jobless claims were filed for the first time last week. that is the lowest in nine months, much less than economists were expecting, and some much-needed good news for the labor market. any time the number is below the key 400,000 level it shows some growing strength in the job market. markets open in just about 45 minutes, and investors are liking that report. u.s. stock futures just turned

up sharply. but there's a lot of market volatility right now given what's happening with europe and its debt crisis. jerry sdusky in jail this morning but trying to make bail after police arrested the ex-penn state coach yesterday on child sexual assault charges involving two new accusers. in washington, the former head of mf global, jon corzine, will go before lawmakers who want to question the former new jersey governor in the collapse his brokerage firm. corzine is expected to say he does not know where the missing $1.2 billion in customer money went. a court in thailand has sentenced a thai-born american to two and a half years in prison for insulting the thai monarchy. it's a charge that could have landed joe gordon 20 years in prison because the king is highly revered. gordon's attorney plans to file for a royal pardon. it will be cold and wet for people living on the east coast this morning. a storm system is moving from the mid-atlantic up to new england, bringing with it lots

of rain and some heavy snow as well, and that's the news you need to start your day. "american morning" back after a break.

good morning, washington. good morning, president obama. it's chilly now. 36 degrees. later on it will be 45, but it will be sunny, so it's a nice day in washington today. just yesterday i had the opportunity to speak to a former occupant of the white house. that's former president bill clinton. the clintons have led a busy life since leaving 1600

pennsylvania avenue and as part of my upcoming holiday special i had a chance to sit down with the former president and talk to him about the ten-year anniversary of his clinton foundation. i also asked him about his wife of 36 years, secretary of state hillary clinton, and her plans for the future. secretary clinton has said she will step down from her position at the end of this term, that she won't run for president in 2016. for the first time in two decades there won't be any clintons in politics. how does that square with you? >> i suppose a lot of the republicans are cheering. i don't know. i -- first, i'm very proud of hillary. i was proud of her service in the senate which she loved. she loved being a senator from new york. i was proud of her campaign for president, and i'm proud of what she's done as secretary of state, and -- and -- but her first love was always what i'm doing now.

i learned to do a lot of what i'm doing now from her. she loves this stuff, and a lot of what she has done as secretary of state, a lot of that she can continue to do, so i look forward to the next chapter in her life. i'm very proud of her, and if she wanted to stay in public life i would strongly support it. >> another run for president? >> when you get to our aiming it's different, good different, not bad different. hillary has to make a decision what she wants to do with the rest of her life and right now she's bone tired. she's done 20 hard years, eight years in the white house, eight careers in the senate, four years as secretary of state, most traveled secretary of state we've ever had. i want her to be happy. i want her to get some rest and do whatever she wants to do, and whatever she wants to do i'll support her. >> i think she must be traveled, most traveled secretary of state. we also talked about former

president clinton's daughter chelsea who certainly has a lot on her plate now. watch. chelsea, she's taking an increasingly public role, not just with your foundation, with secretary clinton as well, and now she's at nbc. how does that feel? >> i'm proud of her. i don't know how she's going to do all this. she's teaching at columbia, still involved with nyu where she worked with them to set up their university in the middle east and chairman of the board of the biggest interfaith group co-headed by a rabbi and imam and thinking about writing a thesis to get her phd from her old alma mater oxford. i don't know how she's going to do it, but i'm really proud of her because she's found her rhythm in life. she likes what she's doing. she believes in it. and that's a good thing. that's what we all want for our children. >> a lot of people wish chelsea clinton would run for congress.

>> yeah. there was some talk about it, about nita lowey's seat in new york state, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen, at least not yet, but don't count the clintons out. >> got to do that reporter thing first, right? >> actually makes her debut in just a couple of days on nbc, that other network. i was there really to talk to him about his clinton foundation, the ten-year anniversary of the foundation, and -- and all of the work he's done. you know, it's extraordinary when you just look at the numbers, they have impacted some estimated 400 million people in 180 countries. he himself has traveled to 150 countries, 30 times to haiti. he's the u.n. special envoy to haiti, just there last week. it was really interesting. i was asking him. i said haiti, unfortunately, has fallen out of the headlines. how did it look when you were there? he said for the first time, for the first time it started to look normal so that was really, really encouraging. >> and it also sounds like hillary clinton might work with

him in his foundation. >> it does. >> they may travel together, may see them together as a couple more often. we never see them as a couple. >> she's traveling all the time. he's traveling all the time and hard to be in the same place. but, yes, he seemed to intimate -- i'm sharing she's doing it in a de facto way right now. anyway, he talked about being vegan, still vegan. says the two hardest things to give up were frozen yogurt and cheese, not the hamburgers. >> i'm with him on the cheese part, man. that's my dream to go on a cheese tour throughout the world. >> that's right. >> that interview, by the way, is part of alina's upcoming "big stars big giving" special which you can catch on december 24th and december 25th right here on cnn. >> thanks for the plug, carol. >> 56 minutes after the hour. we're back after this. the employee of the month is...

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♪ all we are saying is give peace a chance ♪ >> welcome back. you're looking at a live picture of new york's central park. a chilly day today. today fans will gather there at strawberry fields to remember john lennon. the beatle and music